This is a little old-school now but nevertheless an intersting heads-up to the future of the automobile.

THE car of the future, according to General Motors, will have its engine encased in the floor and need no gasoline. It will also have a body and interior that can be replaced as moods change, electronically connected components instead of mechanical parts, and a power source that can serve your home from the driveway.

A mockup of the car, called the Autonomy, has few moving parts other than the wheels and is part of G.M.'s continuing research into cars powered by fuel cells.

Aside from its effort to squeeze fuel cells into conventional cars, trucks and buses, G.M. had a separate team of engineers and designers envision a vehicle unfettered by the constraints of the automobile, which for a century has been designed around an internal combustion engine and mechanical parts.

The result is a vehicle that comes in two parts. The first is what G.M. engineers call the skateboard, a six- inch-thick platform encasing the engine and the car's computer system. The body, including the seats and interior, will perch on the platform, with features like braking, steering and acceleration controlled digitally by electrical impulses (a'la Segway?).

At a recent demonstration, G.M. engineers showed a mockup of the skateboard, which was almost 15 feet long and shaped like a flattened carafe, with Goodyear tires and several thin, parallel heating vents curving up each side. The second part, the body, looked like a sci-fi version of a Formula One racecar.

G.M. envisions that the skateboard will last about 20 years, with the body popped off and replaced with a version customized to the owner's tastes far more often. "This is like a blank canvas, and you can paint whatever you want on top," said Adrian Chernoff, a program architect on the project, adding that the body could be switched "in the time it takes for an oil change."

Such a vehicle would drastically alter automobile assembly, raising questions like who would make the bottom and who would make the top...

I can see it now, "Can you change the color of the car, it clashes with my outfit!"

If you are a World Almanac devotee like myself then you will no doubt appreciate the findings of the Census Departments latest Statistical Abstract of the United States, a trusted companion to the hefty chronicle of most things trivial and statistical.

Some items semi-worthy of note include:
• There are 3,917,240 highway miles across the United States and 587,755 bridges — 28.6 percent of which were structurally deficient or obsolete.
• If you lived in Atlanta, Los Angeles or Seattle, you got to spend an extra 53 hours or more stuck in traffic in the course of a year; if you were in Kansas City, Norfolk, Va., or San Antonio, Texas, you were lucky: a mere 24 extra hours on the road annually.
• Americans consumed 76 billion pounds of red meat and poultry in 2000, 21 percent more than a decade before.
• Nevada has the highest marriage rate in the nation, with nearly 80 people getting hitched for every 1,000 residents. (It doesn’t mention how many were state residents or how many ceremonies involved Elvis paraphernalia.) It also has the highest divorce rate, with 6.8 per 1,000 residents — barely edging out Wyoming’s 6.7. With a divorce rate of just over two per 1,000 residents, folks in Massachusetts seem to be sticking together, while folks in the nation’s capital seem to be staying far from the altar, with only 4.6 of every 1,000 Washingtonians getting married.

Download the whole report.

A computer chip implanted near the eye’s retina is well on its way to offering some restored vision to people blinded by eye diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa and age-related degeneration of the eye. The implant works for eye diseases where healthy retinal neurons remain intact after they lose use of the eye’s photoreceptors that convert images into electric impulses.

Funded by the Office of Naval Research, researchers recently reported that tests show faces can be recognized and words in large type can be read. Human tests started recently. Dr. Mark Humayun, formerly of the Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, is leading the research at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

To capture images, first an external camera mounted in an eyeglass frame captures the image and converts it into an electrical signal that is electronically transmitted to the flexible silicon biochip surgically attached near the retina. The chip electronically stimulates the healthy cells of the retina, which sends the signals conveying the image to the brain.

Just when you've made your mind up that governments do absolutely nothing for the common man or woman this comes along.

The U.S. government is proposing the creation of a national "do not call" registry that would allow consumers to ward off unwanted telemarketers with a single phone call.

Current rules require individual telemarketers to comply when consumers ask them to remove their names from calling lists. Privacy groups advise that people clearly say the phrase: "Put me on your 'do not call' list."

The proposed national registry maintained by the FTC would let a consumer stop calls from all companies with one request. Consumer would also be able to allow calls from specific companies or charities through the telemarketing block. Telemarketers who ignore the national list could face fines of up to $11,000 per violation under the proposal.

More...

What's worse than a cell phone ringing when you are watching a movie or eating out at a resturaunt? When that cell phone is worth more than the combined cost of your last four cars.

The world's first luxury mobile phone company was launched by Nokia on Monday, offering hand-crafted cellular phones, adorned with gold or platinum, and costing as much as a typical family car.

Vertu Ltd, a new independently run subsidiary of Nokia, will start selling its phone range at its stores in some of the most exclusive shopping areas in the United States, Europe and Asia by mid-2002, the company said.

The first devices, costing a staggering 24,000 euros ($21,240), will be cased in platinum, display a sapphire crystal glass screen and offer a sound as clear as a Mozart symphony, Vertu said in connection with the company's launch in Paris during the fashion show week.

Read the rest...

This is not necessarily new, in the scanning hit sense of the word but it's still worth a mention.

A move is afoot to start outfitting passenger automobiles with beefier 42-volt batteries starting next year. Not only will the big battery meet consumer gadget demands inside the car, it will change almost everything under the hood, too - promising at least a 10-percent fuel economy improvement, and perhaps much more. The 42-volt systems offer an intriguing mixture of increased fuel economy, reduced emissions, and consumer benefits. And unlike the futuristic full-electric car, the switch to 42-volt batteries involves relatively modest redesigns, meaning the cars are expected to hit the road in the U.S. during 2004. Japanese models are supposed to be released next year. Read the whole story here.

For those who are not afraid to ride one of the most efficient vehicles ever, the bicycle, options are currently expanding. One simple solution has occurred to a group of intrepid citizens: bikestations. The trend is spreading like an idea whose time has come.

The U.S. saw its first bikestation established in Northern California during the mid 90's. The concept offering secure, personally attended bicycle parking in a central location and a convenient hub of transit-oriented activity.

Denver, Colo. will open its first bikestation later this year. As car traffic gets even worse, we might see bikestations popping up from coast to coast. Imagine a nationwide system offering secure bicycle parking, bike rentals, coffee and bagels, classes on bicycle maintenance, and support groups for sufferers of parking anxiety. Certainly that vision beats an endless line of taillights and exhaust pipes. Maybe it's not for everyone, but for cyclists and others looking to avoid traffic jams, it's like a dream coming true.

First we had the Segway - could the SoloTrek XFV be next?

In December, Millennium Jet successfully tested a one-person flying machine - a jetpack, in the common parlance - that lifted the company's CEO to a height of about two feet, for 20 seconds.

The SoloTrek is about 8-feet-tall and weighs more than 300 pounds, but production models are certain to be smaller and lighter. When it's fully developed, the SoloTrek would fly at speeds up to 80 mph. The vehicle would run on gasoline and it might go 120 miles without refueling. To prevent the odd gust from crashing you into a tree, the vehicle comes equipped with a sophisticated gyroscopic stabilizing system.

Do I think it will take off? (If you will excuse the pun) Probably not, at least not for mass conveyance. The third dimension i.e. up and down, is what will be problematic. Many have enough trouble with side to side and forwards and backwards without another dimension to worry about. It's probably more likely that those with special skills e.g. military and police, or perhaps it could be the latest in a long line of extreme sports.

As a photographer, a roll of film doesn't often go by without at least a few shots of signs. It seems the same is the case for Mark Eastman who has some nice images here.

Was listening to Bruce Cockburn last night and was taken with these lyrics:

The world is full of seasons;
of anguish of laughter,
and it comes to mind to write you this:

Nothing is sure
Nothing is pure
And no matter who we think we are
Everybody gets a chance to be nothing

(from "Isn't that what friends are for" off the the Breakfast in New Orleans.. album - 1999)

For the use-net devotees out there, Google has fully integrated the past 20 years of Usenet archives into Google Groups, which now offers access to more than 700 million messages dating back to 1981. This is by far the most complete collection of Usenet articles ever assembled and no doubt will be a fascinating historical read for those who have the time and the inclination.

They are compiling some especially memorable articles and threads, for example, Tim Berners-Lee's announcement of what became the World Wide Web and Linus Torvalds' post about his "pet project".

Wonder what the history books will look like 100 years from now?

Always on the look-out for the latest and greatest? What about the could be great?
For example, Pre-Stained Clothes for kids. Create clothes for kids with a mottled pattern of every conceivable color. Then when they get ketchup, mustard, paint, marker and/or grass stains on them, you don't have to work so hard to clean them. Check out this and other 'steak tartare'-like ideas at the Half Bakery.